A History Lover's Guide to Houston

By Tristan Smith

A guide to the history of the Bayou City for Texans, visitors and armchair tourists alike.

Houston earned its international reputation as a hub for space flight and the oil industry. But visitors don't need to search out the secrets of the stars or the depths of the earth to experience the impressive legacy of the nation's fourth-largest city. Traverse the streets of downtown and find historic treasures from antebellum Texas. Venture to the outskirts to find the world’s “Eighth Wonder,” as well as the globe’s tallest stone monument and one of its largest ports. Discover why the town’s exceptional heritage of innovation, industry and architecture has sparked a movement to uncover and embrace its historic structures. Join Tristan Smith for an in-depth exploration of Houston’s historic wards.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Mar 16, 2020
• ISBN: 9781439669365

Tristan Smith

Tristan Smith is an independent historian living in Houston, Texas. He has worked for museums and nonprofits in Kansas, Missouri and Texas for more than twenty years in marketing, curation, education, volunteer, management and administrative capacities. He has also consulted organizations and municipalities in historic preservation. He is the author of Houston Fire Department (Images of America series, Arcadia Publishing, 2015), A History Lover's Guide to Houston (The History Press, 2020) and Historic Cemeteries of Houston and Galveston (The History Press, 2023). His additional writing can be found in Authentic Texas magazine, and additional work can be found on his website, www.thehistorysmith.com.

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PREFACE

A History Lover’s Guide to Houston is an exploration of historic downtown Houston. I moved here in August 2011, from a city trenched firmly in historic preservation, Lawrence, Kansas. This college town of about 100,000 people is home to many historic structures and districts. As I sat on the historic resources commission, I saw firsthand not only the struggles of preserving a community’s historic fabric but also the struggles of attempting to grow in it. When I moved to Houston, I encountered a city that had struggled to hold on to its past while traveling at lightspeed to the future, felling numerous stories along the way.

I’m an explorer. I like to discover my city, street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood, building by building. I find adaptive reuse of historic properties fascinating and am amazed by the work people put into the restoration of historic structures. My purpose for this book is to help others explore the historic fabric of downtown Houston. I want others to experience what we have left in the way of historic buildings. While not enough, I think we have a good number of historic buildings to appreciate. I also think that an informed and interested base of people will add to the number of those hoping to save future projects from demolition. We already have amazing work from those at the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, the Texas Historical Commission, the Heritage Society and the Houston Archaeological and Historic Commission, along with numerous individuals, architects and engineers working to highlight historic preservation efforts in our community. I hope readers of this book will add to that force.

This book is not meant to be a complete listing of all historic structures in Houston, nor is it comprehensive; however, it is a good overview. I’d like for you to read and explore—to take the book with you. I’ve walked and driven the streets of downtown taking notes, researched the National Register of Historic Places and perused the listings of the city’s historic preservation landmarks to collect the buildings in this book.

I hope that you enjoy this book. I hope that you take it and explore downtown Houston. I hope you get involved with the preservation of our community in ways that maybe you hadn’t before.

INTRODUCTION

The first Anglo settlers in southeast Texas were members of Stephen F. Austin’s Old 300, remaining in Brazoria County, south of present-day Houston, in the 1820s. Working with the Mexican government, Austin had encouraged settlers to come to Texas to colonize the area.

In August 1836, brothers Augustus Allen and John Allen, who arrived in Texas five years prior, purchased six thousand acres of land running along Buffalo Bayou, part of John Austin’s (no relation to Stephen) original survey. In November, with land surveyed, they laid out the original town plat, with Main Street running through the center of town. It was located between White Oak and Buffalo Bayous, and the Allen brothers thought that Buffalo Bayou could become an important shipping route between the Gulf Coast and the interior of the new Republic of Texas. Houston contained sixty-two blocks and sixteen streets laid in an off-center grid along the bayou.

The Allens promoted their new town—named for General Sam Houston, cleared the land and began selling parcels, giving little attention to any future development. In fact, some of the earliest accounts of Houston recount the streets and blocks of the new town becoming muddy after rain and pockmarked with tree stumps in the right of way. Reserves were set aside for a courthouse, market house, capitol for the Republic of Texas and, on the southern edge of town, a church and a school. Little other development regulation was established. The town was officially chartered in 1837.

Early residents and visitors to Houston could find emergency accommodations that were hastily built to provide shelter for general life and business. Until proper sawmills could be established, most structures were tents or simple log structures. Eventually, these would be replaced with wood frame buildings and then replaced by masonry structures both for stability and to stave off the destructive fires that were common in Houston.

The Original Plan of Houston map, an 1869 reproduction of Gail Borden and Moses Lapham’s 1836 original commissioned by the Allen brothers. The map shows a city with all roads leading to or away from Buffalo Bayou, the main artery of the heart of Houston. Many of the street names remain the same, with space reserved for a courthouse, churches and schools. Courtesy of Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries.

During Houston’s first decade, with little established in the way of development regulation, it was common to find residences located directly next to businesses. The city began to expand on all sides, and in 1839, the same year the capital was moved to Austin, Houston was divided into four wards for voting and city management purposes. These wards came together at the axis of Main and Congress Streets.

The first economic boom came in the 1850s, resulting directly from the construction of the Houston and Texas Central Railway. The city had become a major southern shipping center and a hub for rail activity. With this growth, the value of real estate increased, quickly outgrowing the value for residential use. Neighborhoods started being established on the farther reaches of the city, including one to the east called Quality Hill.

A daguerreotype of Sam Houston taken some time between 1848 and 1850 by famed photographer Matthew Brady. His legacy includes service in the War of 1812 and leading the Texian Army to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto, while his political career lists service as Republic of Texas president (1836–38 and 1841–44), U.S. House of Representatives for Tennessee 1823–27 and Texas 1839–41), Senate (1846–59) and governor of Tennessee (1827–29) and Texas (1859–61). Courtesy of Library of Congress.

Following the Civil War, Houston continued to grow, and the ongoing extension of rail service throughout Texas resulted in increased access for Houston merchants and an influx of money. City leaders followed with civic improvements, finishing the Harris County Courthouse and constructing a permanent city hall and market house. Neighboring buildings for new or growing businesses followed suit around Market Square in the late 1860s and into the 1870s. As technology advanced, so did the need for businesses and developers to make their buildings stand out. New construction methods and materials, along with daring engineers and architects, brought a new wave of buildings, growing higher along the skyline as Houston approached and then passed the turn of the century.

The Allen brothers were prescient—thinking their new town would benefit from the location of the bayou and its proximity to the Gulf turned out to be correct. With the construction of the Houston Ship Channel and Port of Houston, the city grew rapidly, easily overtaking the once-larger island town of Galveston and soon surpassing all other Texas cities in size. This growth brought more money and more growth, enabling developers to bring in architects from around the country.

By 1873, Houston had become a busy center of commerce. Its business district was vibrant, expanding and becoming well known throughout the country as an important port. The nearby island of Galveston would continue to overshadow its neighbor until the devastating hurricane of 1900 caused that focus to shift inland to Houston. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

The Turning Basin in the Port of Houston, seen here with the cruiser Houston, is home to several oil refineries and docks for Houston’s vast network of industrial companies. The port is one of the busiest seaports in the United States. Courtesy of National Archives.

A prominent figure during the early twentieth century was city leader and businessman Jesse Jones. Many Houston architects called Jones either a direct benefactor or, at the very least, an influencer of their projects. The firm of Mauran, Russell, and Crowell from St. Louis could mark seven Houston buildings associated with Jones. By 1913, the year the concrete Main Street viaduct was constructed to cross Buffalo Bayou, Houston’s building boom went quiet.

This explosion of growth continued to push downtown business boundaries away from the core surrounding Market Square, the original heart of the city. As the city grew, the neighboring residences on the edges of town began to move farther away and were swallowed up by civic and commercial enterprises. Much of Quality Hill was eliminated with the construction of Union Station, and residences on the south side of downtown would continue to push in the southward direction, forming what is today the Midtown District.

Jesse Jones (left) takes oath as federal loan administrator on July 17, 1939. Jones, a politician and entrepreneur from Houston, went on to serve as the United States secretary of Commerce from 1940 until 1945. His influence in Houston, however, stretched throughout most of his adult life. His activity would be felt architecturally, in the commercial sector, in the media and a variety of civic and political avenues. Houston likely would not be the metropolis it is today without his influence. Courtesy of Library of Congress.

After World War I, Houston saw another period of growth, this time with most of the projects located outside the Market Square District, an area that was content in its stability. Buildings continued to be built taller and taller. Houston’s skyline changed at what seemed to be an annual rate. By the beginning of the Great Depression, the civic center and the heart of downtown’s commerce district had moved beyond Market Square. The 1904 city hall was replaced by a newer building and was converted to a bus station.

During the 1950s, downtown buildings that were considered old and unable to conform to modern necessities began to fall, many making way for parking lots while others were modernized and converted into office buildings. In 1960, the old 1904 city hall and the neighboring market building burned.

By the end of the 1960s, downtown had expanded exponentially since its founding, and a new highway system, leading into and out of downtown, had been started. This would eventually frame a boundary for the downtown district, with major highways or federal interstates running around the city. Market Square and Allen’s Landing were converted into parks during the 1960s and 1970s, joining Sam Houston Park downtown.

Houston has always been a city of growth, of looking to the future rather than to the past. One organization in particular has taken up the mantle of historic preservation. The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance was incorporated in 1978, and, with neighborhood representatives in 1995, convinced Mayor Bob Lanier that the city needed to protect its historic resources. This work resulted in the passage of the city’s first historic preservation ordinance. In 2012, it rebranded to Preservation Houston and has continued to lead the charge for historic preservation in Houston. Not all buildings can be saved, but through the efforts of concerned individuals and organizations such as this, at least there is a louder voice calling for discussion and activism.

This aerial photo of downtown Houston was taken in 1947. Just above the cloud shadow, near the center of the photograph, is the ribbon of Buffalo Bayou that meanders north of downtown. Courtesy of National Archives.

I have divided this book up using Houston’s ward system. While they were officially in use for only a short time, they’ve continued to be used locally as descriptors. For the downtown section, I’ve broken the area into the six wards of Houston, using the Main and Congress axis as the common connector with boundaries stretching out from there. Since Houston no longer uses the ward system, and because of the immense changes that have taken place downtown over the past 175-plus years, I’ve forgone the descriptions of the various wards until we leave downtown. You’ll find those introducing the historic sites later on, as they have retained some of their identity primarily away from the confines of the city center.

PART I

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON

1

FIRST WARD

JEFFERSON DAVIS HOSPITAL

1101 Elder Street

Originally the site of a municipal cemetery and burial grounds for the City of Houston, this is where more than six thousand Confederate army soldiers, former slaves and city officials were laid to rest, including thousands of yellow fever and cholera victims. The cemetery operated from 1840 until 1879, with some family burials continuing into the 1890s before falling into disuse. In the 1920s, the city